1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to managing satellite operations, and more specifically to a system and method for managing and controlling the access of telemetered information from one or more spacecraft.
2. Description of the Related Art
Existing systems and architectures designed to serve the commercial satellite service provider industry have a number of drawbacks. One drawback relates to the use of unsophisticated or outdated computer technology and software applications in managing satellite services. These systems are based, for example, on a client/server paradigm which is directed to very narrow objectives. The resulting systems and software architectures thus exhibit a design parsimoniousness commensurate with the narrow scope of these objectives. They have also proven to be unsuitable for use in enterprise applications, and are generally time-consuming to implement, difficult to maintain, complex to modify, and unreliable.
Various attempts have been made to overcome these problems. Most focus on using prohibitively expensive Commercial HTTP Server, J2EE Server database management software designed to improve reliability and expand functionality. This software and other hardware-based techniques which have been attempted, however, have proven to be unsatisfactory from both a cost and effectiveness standpoint. None of the system modifications, for example, have been able to provide an enterprise-based solution that may be integrated for use on a distributed network such as the Internet.
Another drawback relates to the failure to provide an integrated satellite management scheme. Many satellite service providers use separate software systems to manage satellites that are manufactured by different spacecraft vendors. These separate systems increase costs and the overall complexity of the management process.
In view of the foregoing consideration, it is therefore apparent that there is a need for an improved system and method for managing at least one and preferably a fleet of geosynchronous satellites.